The Blood Asp is God's gift to ballistic 'Mechs, with skyhook cannon hardpoints mated to a relatively high-mounted cockpit permitting the ultimate in hull-down shooting. It also comes with 6E stock in its primary configuration, which is enough for most larger laser boats, and with the faintly possible addition of ATMs incoming, even the singleton missile hardpoint might not be a total waste.
The Asp also has both jets and ECM in its Alt. A pods. The Bravo mounts ECM, as well, so depending on introduced designs we might see the first 'Mech with a choice of ECM locations. The Delta pods allow for multiple boated ballistics, though not necessarily in the Prime's skyhooks. Riffs on the Echo or Fox would allow for missile spam. A 360 engine for a 90-tonner isn't really
that overengined, despite all the claims of 85-tonner efficiency, and the 'Mech's overall shape is not awful.
If introduced, the Blood Asp would be an immediate 5/5 and probably usurp the Kodiak as the best Clan assault 'Mech in the game. It gets the full 64kph movement profile with a 360 instead of a 400, the same top-mount Supah Hardpoints for ballistic power sniping, and a much better array of secondary equipment across its various pods. it couldn't do KDK-3 QuaDakka spam, but QuaDakka hasn't really been the issue for a while now. Everything else the Kodiak does, the Asp does better. It is probably the most powerful assault design in
all the TROs for the Clan side, insofar as MWO performance goes. Once the Asp is in, it's all downhill from there.
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The Mk. II isn't nearly so gifted, unfortunately. The Gauss rifles in its Prime fit
are pretty much precisely cockpit height, and omission of the design's missiles would also make for an excellent hull-down ballistic sniper. One could argue that the location of the Mk. II's torso-mounted energy points and its ability to downgrade its engine allows it to be a better dual Gosse/dual PPC heavy sniper than either the Blood Asp (low energy hardpoints, inability to switch engine) or the Kodiak (low, way off-bore energy hardpoints means weird exposure for PPC fire). If Class I jets ever stop sucking, the Mk. II would potentially be the new King of Toaster Pastries, but that's a title nobody really wants to bear.
In terms of straight-up combat, however, the Mk. II would be soundly beaten by the Blood Asp. 2B/6E is all you really need for even an assault 'Mech, and multiple ballistics in the arms of the Mk. II, if hardpoints were inflated there, limits it to lighter cannons. As well, some of the Mk. II's variant designs are weird even by FutureTech standards. The Enhanced, for example, is basically not coming, though the Mk. II 2 offers some SRM-spam potential. Beyond those, there's not much in the Mk. II's variants that offers a lot of new'n'different. The 4 lets you do heavy energy cannons in the arms if you prefer, but that's about it.
The Mk. II potentially shields well if the art is to be believed, but I'm not sure how well those big gunpod arms would translate to MWO. The modelers have let us down that way before. Also this is going to be a 'Mech with no elbows, similar to the Cauldron-Born, which would give the nod to the Asp in a close-quarters scrum. The Mk. II
does get to optimize its frame, however, with free-floating structure upgrades and moddable engines a'la BattleMech customization, and theoretically its prime fit alone is enough to get its primary task done.
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Overall, I believe the Asp to be a stronger offering. The presence of ECM, pod-jets allowing it to jump if it likes or not if it doesn't (so no ground lost to the Mk. II), and the greater overall flexibility of its weapons mounts across its various configurations gives it an edge. The Mk. II has "safer" Gauss rifles in the arms rather than the torso and a flatter overall hardpoint layout on a shorter overall 'Mech, making for a potentially somewhat more efficient hill sniper, but it would be much less able to defend itself in a scrum or configure for close combat than the Asp. Both of them are saddled with Class I jets so neither of them can properly jump for spit.
Either design would likely be stronger than any Clan assault 'Mech not named Kodiak or Marauder right now, and arguments can be made that either design might well dethrone the KDK-3 as the King of Gauss. The Asp almost
certainly would, if it were released, while the Mk. II might take some finagling and playerbase-adoption.
My vote, between the two, would have to go to the Asp. In part because I want to see what heavy lasers and ATMs would look like and we kinda need both to import the Asp properly, and in part because I enjoy watching Imperious squirm